As the professional, scientific, and credentialing association for 179,692 members and affiliates who are speech-language pathologists, audiologists, speech, language, and hearing scientists, audiology and speech-language pathology support personnel, and students in the united states and internationally, asha promotes the individual and collective professional interests of the members of the association and stimulates exchange of information among persons and organizations engaged in the academic and clinical discipline of human communication sciences. asha encourages basic scientific study of the process of individual human communication with special reference to speech, language, and hearing, promotes appropriate academic and clinical preparation of individuals entering the profession and provides maintenance of current knowledge and skills of those within the discipline by offering professional publications (a year round newsletter and 4 periodical journals), continuing education programs and products to its members. asha advocates on behalf of persons with communication and related disorders. It promotes investigation and prevention of disorders of human communication and fosters improvements of clinical services and procedures concerning such disorders.